There's a question that has been puzzling me: what exactly is money worth?

According to Elon Musk's understanding, "money" is essentially a measure of labor. What does having money mean? It means you can command others' labor to work for you. From this perspective, money itself has no intrinsic value; it is merely a certificate of exchange rights.

But there's a problem with this logic—what if artificial intelligence and robotics truly become powerful enough to meet the needs of all humanity? Then everything changes.

Imagine this scenario: productivity expands infinitely, resources are abundant to the point of surplus, and labor becomes an infinitely available commodity. In such a case, does traditional "money" still have a need to exist?

To illustrate this idea, Musk even referenced the worldview of science fiction writer Ian Banks' "Culture" series—in that highly advanced fictional future, scarcity disappears, and the economic system collapses as a result.

This is not just a utopian fantasy. When production efficiency reaches its limit and humans no longer need to exchange or distribute, the foundation of monetary value will collapse. This could be the ultimate question for human civilization's evolution after the Web3 era.